If you’ve grown up in the Mumbai suburbs, you’ve seen Gilbert Hill at least once.. It’s that standalone rocky outcrop along the JVPD road between Juhu and Andheri. History of Gilbert Hill Gilbert Hill in Mumbai is as old as ‘The Age of the Reptiles’, dating 65 million years. It’s made up of black basalt rock columns that were a result of molten lava that got squeezed from the Earth’s clefts. Geologists have compared Gilbert…
Hampi is an ancient town in Karnataka with a population of a few thousands. The focal point of your visit here is the ruins of the Vijayanagara Empire, once a flourishing kingdom dating 1 CE. It has been pronounced as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Spread over 11 km, the ruins can take up to 2 to 3 days to explore by yourself. But if one is pressed for time, here is an option to do…
It’s unlikely to find Reis Magos Fort on a tourist’s wish-list of things to do in Goa. This partially works because you have the beautifully restored fort to yourself. Originally built in 1497 by Adil Shah of Bijapur, the Reis Magos Fort was later captured by the Portuguese in 1543. By the 1900s the fort was no more used as a defensive structure but a prison. It remained in a state of abandon for over a…
Not many think of Chennai as a city that has lots to offer to a traveller. The capital of Tamil Nadu is a pure commercial hub. The weather keeps tourists at bay too. Summers extend up to 9 months and when it rains, it pours! In my opinion, Chennai is underrated. The city has a thriving local culture and a historic past as the ‘Madras Presidency’ of British India. I have had the opportunity of visiting…
The Ahmedabad landscape has changed over years with investor friendly policies and solid infrastructure development. Business travelers will, most definitely, find their way into Ahmedabad. But the city is also an excellent base for tourists. Anyone visiting Thol Bird Sanctuary, Nal Sarovar Sanctuary, Anand, Patan and even Bhuj can easily keep Ahmedabad as their base for stay or layover. Adalaj Stepwell An Overview Recently, I took a stopover in Ahmedabad before leaving for Jaisalmer on…
I happened to visit Indira Gandhi Memorial Museum by chance. It’s a not-so-pleasant fact that I visited Delhi but did no local sightseeing (except this museum), since I was attending a conference. Such is the life of a Corporate slave! Never mind. Indira Gandhi Memorial Museum was the residence of former Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi. The location has been converted into a museum as a tribute to the late politician. It stands in the…
I have had to rely on my memory to write about my visit to RBI Monetary Museum; since photography was not allowed inside their premises. This wonderful museum depicts the evolution of money from 2nd century BC until this day. Founded in 2005, it is run by the Reserve Bank of India. RBI Monetary Museum is located on the ground level of the RBI premises in Fort, South Mumbai. What’s in store at RBI Monetary Museum…
Karla Caves and Celebrity Wax Museum have ranked high on my list of must see places in Lonavla. The latter had more of my attention since it was our very own Indian Madame Tussauds. A wax museum in India and so close to Mumbai had me eyeing this location for a really long time. We started at 7:30 am from Mumbai and reached Lonavala by 9:30 am. Before we visited the wax museum, we chose to…
I took a break from my Gujarat posts and visited Prince of Wales Museum two weeks back. This is my second visit to Prince of Wales museum, since I was not able to do justice to the museum in my first visit in 2012. As a Bombayite, I could afford to visit Prince of Wales museum twice. But some of the readers of this post may/would not like to be in this position. Hence, I…
The last time I visited a royal palace was the Buckingham palace in London in the summer of 2010. Cut to present, in my road trip to Gujarat, I saw the magnificent Laxmi Vilas Palace in Vadodara that (might I say) is as much royal as the Buckingham Palace. The Laxmi Vilas Palace is the home of the Royal Gaekwad family who were once the rulers of the princely state of Baroda right until Indian…
It doesn’t take an expert to know that Mumbai is synonymous with congestion, noise and pollution. And yet in all this chaos, Mumbai has managed to nestle a Butterfly Park, popularly known as Maharashtra Nature Park. WWF (India) – a wild life and nature conservation organization, conceived the concept for a nature park way back in 1970. More than two decades later, we have Maharashtra Nature Park. Obviously, the course of allocating acres of land…
Nature lovers and those complaining about Mumbai’s congestion have something to rejoice! Sewri – a neighbourhood towards South Mumbai, has a jetty cum dock which is home to thousands of Flamingos and other rare bird species from November to March. These are migratory birds that come from as far as Siberia to the mud flats in Sewri via the Rann of Kutch in Gujarat. They are foraging for food during this period and the mucky location…
[Last updated: 16 March 2019] On Day 3 of my Gujarat road trip, our final stop was the AMUL Dairy factory in Anand. I was very keen on visiting the AMUL factory even though we were driving 50 km further down from Vadodara to Anand. What made it trickier was that the factory allowed visitors only between 2pm and 4pm. So, not only were we driving to another city for one attraction but racing time…
If you are bored of visiting Goa’s infinite beaches or if you are the type of person who enjoys visiting museums then Ancestral Goa Museum is a place you can check out. The Place Ancestral Goa is meant to give you a cultural glimpse of Goa – Olden style homes, what their occupations were like? how did they dress? what did they eat? et cetera. The place is also popular as Big foot because of an…
